Friday, December 24, 2010

Larry Klaes posted to the FPSPACE group (http://www.friends-partners.org/mailman/listinfo/fpspace) this bit about the blog from Paleo-Future. I thought it worth sharing as well. It was a time of dreams of living in space. A time of for artists to paint a picture of what might be.
- LRK -

The 1960 book First Men to the Moon by Wernher von Braun tells the story of John Mason, a fictional astronaut of the future bound for the moon. The dedication page reads, "To Iris and Margrit [von Braun's daughters] who will live in a world in which flights to the moon will be commonplace."

In the book we read of the training and technical expertise necessary for a journey into space, accompanied by amazing illustrations and diagrams by Fred Freeman. As one of my favorite pre-Apollo books of space retro-futurism I can't recommend this book highly enough. With hard to find retrofuture books like these I sometimes wonder if there might be a market for them if a publisher were to reissue them.

Matt is available for interviews and speaking engagements, but if you'd like him to use his "inside voice" we recommend not providing Mr. Novak with alcoholic beverages of any kind. If temperance is not crucial, he sure does enjoy his bourbon.

Wernher von Braun begins the film Challenge of Outer Space by saying, "The conquest of outer space is the greatest technological challenge of the age in which we live."

[See video clip - LRK -]

Even before a manned mission to the moon the nation's top space scientists were speculating about what space stations would look like. I find it difficult to mentally put myself in an era when space exploration had not yet occurred, but films like this help a great deal.
The torodial space colony is featured heavily in the film and is a favorite among those depicting space stations of the future.

Above is a short clip of the 30 minute film and I hope to explore Challenges of Outer Space in depth as more information about this paleo-futuristic wonder becomes available.
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Do you have a young artist that needs some inspiration?
Take a look at the list of previous artists here.
- LRK -

Space art ranges from hard-edged graphic arts realism to fine art abstractionism. Regardless of the style, good space art illuminates the special excitement, mystery and attraction of the cosmos. Space art comes second only to science fiction in the power to inspire the public's interest and support for space exploration.

The history of space art goes back to at least the late 1800's with the illustrations for the books of Jules Verne and for the first popular books about astronomy.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Recently mentioned has been the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, all out there in deep space.
We have seen the Pioneer Anomaly mentioned and the fact that they were spin stabilized making them a quiet platform to look at your Doppler measurements. It has been suggested that the New Horizon spacecraft on its way to Pluto might also be used to look at its Doppler measurements while in its spin stabilized cruise mode when it was on its way passed Jupiter and later on the way to Pluto.
- LRK -

In 2006, NASA dispatched an ambassador to the planetary frontier. The New Horizons spacecraft is now halfway between Earth and Pluto, on approach for a dramatic flight past the icy planet and its moons in July 2015.

After 10 years and more than 3 billion miles, on a historic voyage that has already taken it over the storms and around the moons of Jupiter, New Horizons will shed light on new kinds of worlds we've only just discovered on the outskirts of the solar system.

Pluto gets closer by the day, and New Horizons continues into rare territory, as just the fifth probe to traverse interplanetary space so far from the Sun. And the first to travel so far, to reach a new planet for exploration.

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More information as to progress of New Horizons spacecraft.
- LRK -

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Where Is New Horizons?http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.phpThe computer-generated images below are simulated views of New Horizons' location in the solar system. The images were created using the Satellite Tool Kit (STK) software, which was developed by Analytical Graphics, Inc. Images are updated every hour.
Click here to follow New Horizons as it passes each planet's orbit, starting with our own Moon.
Current Position
This image shows New Horizons' current position. The green segment of the line shows where New Horizons has traveled since launch; the red indicates the spacecraft's path toward Jupiter, Pluto and beyond. Positions of stars with magnitude 12 or brighter are shown from this perspective, which is above the Sun and "north" of Earth's orbit.http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/current/nhcp20101201_0527.jpg
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Full Trajectory: Overhead View
This image shows New Horizons' current position along its full planned trajectory. The green segment of the line shows where New Horizons has traveled since launch; the red indicates the spacecraft's future path. Positions of stars with magnitude 12 or brighter are shown from this perspective, which is above the Sun and "north" of Earth's orbit.http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/overview/nhov20101201_0527.jpg

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Full Trajectory - Side View
This image shows New Horizons' current position along its full planned trajectory. The green segment of the line shows where New Horizons has traveled since launch; the red indicates the spacecraft's future path. Positions of stars with magnitude 12 or brighter are shown from this perspective, which is slightly above the orbital plane of the planets. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/whereisnh/sideview/nhsv20101201_0527.jpg
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[Note: Suggest actually going to the web link above as they will all display with current date. - LRK -
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Do you think you might be interested in being a member of a team that launches a probe to interstellar space?
Do you have 15 years to spend on it?
- LRK -

“This is the time to remember'Cause it will not last foreverThese are the days to hold on to'Cause we won't although we'll want to . . .”
Well, 10 years ago, on Dec. 19, 2000, NASA announced that it would conduct a competition for a PI-led mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. At the time, I’d been involved in leading NASA’s science working group for just such a mission, and I had led a successful proposal to build a complete suite of science instruments for the mission. So, almost immediately upon NASA’s announcement, colleagues asked me to lead a Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission proposal.
Within a week of NASA’s announcement, my team had joined up with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and formed a larger mission team, which ultimately became known as New Horizons. The 11 months that our team spent together writing and then winning that proposal, and the four subsequent whirlwind years we spent building and launching New Horizons, have become days to remember.
As we enter the 2010 holiday season, with the spacecraft and instrument payload that our team built now approaching the orbit of Uranus, I can’t help but think: 10 years. Ten. Wow.
When you get involved in a project of such length — we still have more than 4 ½ years to go to get to Pluto, and another nine months after that to get all our data back on Earth — you can’t help but feel your project team is a kind of family, one you’re journeying through both space and time with.

When you take an airplane ride and wake up from a long sleep you might like to know where you are.
Sometimes it takes awhile to get your bearings, a look out the window or check the TV monitor.
If you are a spacecraft that has been in cruise mode and are awakened to check out your systems, one of things you want to know is just how far along your path have you gone. Do we have to consider something like the Pioneer Anomaly?http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php?page=piPerspective_05_21_2010
- LRK -

by Paul Gilster on May 24, 2010
Recently we’ve been talking about long-distance repair, and how any probe launched beyond the Solar System is going to have to fix its own problems rather than relying solely on transmissions from Earth. New Horizons, halfway to Pluto/Charon in terms of distance, isn’t yet in that category. It’s going to eventually make its way into the Kuiper Belt, but for now, it’s close enough for controllers to wake it up periodically for checks. In fact, the next wakeup call, which comes tomorrow, begins a nine-week period of rigorous tests.
Long-term missions like New Horizon demand annual checkouts, and this one (as opposed to last year’s) is to be comprehensive, ranging from conducting heliospheric cruise science to uploading a series of code enhancements and bug fixes to the spacecraft’s fault protection software. The spacecraft’s backup systems will be checked and its seven scientific instruments re-calibrated. Principal investigator Alan Stern describes the process in his latest report.http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php?page=piPerspective_05_21_2010
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Not all fixes to a spacecraft involve repairing malfunctioning systems. In the case of New Horizons, it’s also necessary to keep a close eye on the course. With the vehicle well into the outer Solar System, it’s interesting to speculate about what forces could be causing the need for a course correction. No, it’s not the so-called ‘Pioneer Anomaly,’ but the reflection of thermal photons from New Horizons’ radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) striking the back of its high-gain antenna. A tiny effect multiplied over four years has consequences.
The fix is to be a June 30 course correction involving a change in speed of about 1.5 kilometers per hour. The 30-second thruster burn will make New Horizon’s first course change since late 2007. Also coming up this summer are cruise observations of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto itself, along with four weeks of observations of the space plasma environment near the orbit of Uranus.
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Some snips from Wikipedia about the New Horizons mission.
More there is you care to check.
- LRK -

New Horizons is a NASArobotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planetPluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra. NASA may also approve flybys of one or more other Kuiper belt objects.New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory. It had an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph) after its last engine shut down. Thus, it left Earth at the fastest launch speed ever recorded for a man-made object. New Horizons flew by Jupiter on February 28, 2007, and the orbit of Saturn on June 8, 2008; it is projected to arrive at Pluto on July 14, 2015, after which it will continue into the Kuiper belt.
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New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers mission category, larger and more expensive than Discovery missions but smaller than the Flagship Program. The cost of the mission (including spacecraft and instrument development, launch vehicle, mission operations, data analysis, and education/public outreach) is approximately $650 million over 15 years (from 2001 to 2016). An earlier proposed Pluto mission – Pluto Kuiper Express – was cancelled by NASA in 2000 for budgetary reasons. Further information relating to an overview with historical context[1] can be found at the IEEE website and gives further background and details, with more details regarding the Jupiter fly-by.[2]
The New Horizons craft was built primarily by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Johns HopkinsApplied Physics Laboratory (APL). The mission's principal investigator is Alan Stern (NASA Associate Administrator, formerly of the Southwest Research Institute).
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On April 7, 2006 at 10:00 UTC, the spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars, moving at roughly 21 km/s away from the Sun at a solar distance of 243 million kilometers.[16]New Horizons made a distant flyby of the small asteroid 132524 APL (previously known by its provisional designation, 2002 JF56), at a distance of 101,867 km at 04:05 UTC on June 13, 2006. The best current estimate of the asteroid's diameter is approximately 2.3 kilometers, and the spectra obtained by New Horizons showed that APL is an S-type asteroid.
The spacecraft successfully tracked the asteroid over June 10 – June 12, 2006. This allowed the mission team to test the spacecraft's ability to track rapidly moving objects. Images were obtained through the Ralph telescope.[17]
snipNew Horizons has both spin-stabilized (cruise) and three-axis stabilized (science) modes, controlled entirely with hydrazinemonopropellant. 77 kg (170 lb) of hydrazine provides a delta-v capability of over 290 m/s (649 mph) after launch. Helium is used as a pressurant, with an elastomeric diaphragm assisting expulsion. The spacecraft's on-orbit mass including fuel will be over 470 kg (1,036 lb) for a Jupiter flyby trajectory, but would have been only 445 kg (981 lb) for a direct flight to Pluto. This would have meant less fuel for later Kuiper belt operations and is caused by the launch vehicle performance limitations for a direct-to-Pluto flight.
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Well just another 5 years and we will see what we shall see.
Hmmm, 73 + 5 = 78, might still be around if I can cut down on my near misses while on my travels.
Hope New Horizon continues to perform well.
- LRK -

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University of Idaho special purpose computers are hurtling toward the edge of the solar system at speeds in excess of 43,000 mph aboard NASA’s New Horizons probe. The probe carrying the University’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research’s (CAMBR) EDAC5 chip was launched Jan.19, 2006. The chip provides error correction of the data New Horizons is gathering on its groundbreaking mission. The ultimate objective of the mission is to gather information on the dwarf planet Pluto and the unexplored Kuiper Belt region beyond it. The probe is expected to arrive at Pluto in 2015.

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MIT Clug of Ottawa http://mitottawa.ncf.ca/recent0506.htmlMeetings from 2005-2006 Season
snip7 February, 2006The Pioneer Anomaly - Seeking an explanation in on-board telemetry
Viktor Toth Pioneer 10 and 11, launched over three decades ago, remain the most precisely navigated deep space craft to date. They are true "pioneers" in many respects: they were the first to venture beyond the orbit of Mars, first to cross the asteroid belt, first to fly by Jupiter and Saturn, and first to leave the Solar System. They functioned far beyond their design lifetime: Pioneer 10 sent its last telemetry in 2002, 30 years after it departed the Earth, from a distance three times that of Pluto. However, if viewed as a test of general relativity, the Pioneers failed to confirm Einstein's predictions: after accounting for known forces, a small, anomalous acceleration remains, slowing down the spacecraft ever so slightly. There have been many attempts to account for this anomaly using both known and new physics. A recent effort to recover the entire mission record of the Pioneers made a new approach possible: the use of telemetry to analyze the contribution of forces of on-board origin to the Pioneers' motion.

Viktor Toth (http://www.vttoth.com/) is a software developer and author of computer books. Several years ago, he began to collaborate with Larry Kellogg from NASA's Ames Research Center in an effort to preserve the 30 year telemetry record of both Pioneers. With the code Viktor developed, it became possible to read these data files on modern computers. A draft of a report on the current status of this work, accepted for publication by the International Journal of Modern Physics D, can be read in preprint form at http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0512121. Viktor now participates in an international collaboration (http://www.issi.unibe.ch/teams/Pioneer/), sponsored by the International Space Science Institute in Switzerland, to analyze the Pioneer Anomaly in view of newly recovered telemetry and radio science data, discuss theories concerning the anomaly's origin, and study the possibility of a dedicated mission to verify the Pioneer results. He will talk about the Pioneer Anomaly and its investigation, and describe his work to model the on-board systematics, including recent results and implications for new missions, such as NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.snip
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The Quest to Understand the Pioneer Anomalyhttp://arxiv.org/ftp/gr-qc/papers/0702/0702017.pdf
LA-UR-06-6181

Summary: The Pioneer 10/11 missions, launched in 1972 and 1973, and their navigation are
reviewed. Beginning in about 1980 an unmodeled force of ~ 8 x 10-8 cm/s2 appeared in the
tracking data, it later being verified. The cause remains unknown, although radiant heat remains
a likely origin. A set of efforts to find the solution are underway: a) analyzing in detail all
available data, b) using data from the New Horizons mission, and c) considering an ESA
dedicated mission.

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b) The New Horizons mission to Pluto
On 19 Jan 2006 the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt was launched from Cape
Canaveral. Although it was not designed for precision tracking, it might be able to yield useful
information.

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A saving grace may be that soon after launch a 180 degree “Earth acquisition manoeuvre”
rotation was performed, to aim the main antenna at the Earth. The difference in the Doppler shift
immediately before and after the rotation can in principle yield a difference measurement of the
heat acceleration which would be pointed first in one direction and then in the opposite. But a
determination may be difficult because of the high solar radiation pressure (which will vary
somewhat in the two orientations) and the relatively small data set before the manoeuvre.

More gratifyingly, New Horizons will be in spin-stabilization mode for about the six months
before the Jupiter observing period (January-June, 2007, with encounter on 28 Feb. 2007). It
also will be spin-stabilized for much of the period after June 2007 until soon before the Pluto
encounter on 14 July 2015. This is designed to save fuel so it can be used to aim later at a
Kuiper Belt Object. With luck the Doppler and range data from these periods will supply a test,
at some level, of the Pioneer anomaly, especially since the velocity of the craft before (~21 km/s)
and after (~25 km/s) the Jupiter encounter will be significantly different that those of the
Pioneers (~12 km/s). Perhaps something can be learned from the New Horizons data by 2008.

If you want to land a space ship on the Moon it helps to know where the mountains and valleys are located.
Apollo 17 had to come in between mountains and if you are to land at a lunar polar region it would be could to land near a dark crater but close to a sun lit mountain as well. Falling into a crater would not be a good thing if you weren't prepared for freezing cryogenic temperatures.

12.17.10
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is allowing researchers to create the most precise and complete map to date of the moon's complex, heavily cratered landscape.

[40 second video clip showing a full rotation of the Moon, before and now. - LRK -]A LOLA digital elevation map compiled in late 2009 (right) is compared to the Unified Lunar Control Network (ULCN) 2005, a painstakingly constructed map based on the best available data at the time, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey. Credit: NASA/Goddard/MIT/SVS

[25 second animation of LOLA - LRK -]This is an animation illustrating how LOLA measures lunar elevations. LOLA sends a pattern of five laser pulses to the lunar surface, and computes distance and elevation by measuring how long it takes for the pulses to return. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Meaney

"This dataset is being used to make digital elevation and terrain maps that will be a fundamental reference for future scientific and human exploration missions to the moon," said Dr. Gregory Neumann of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "After about one year taking data, we already have nearly 3 billion data points from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter on board the LRO spacecraft, with near-uniform longitudinal coverage. We expect to continue to make measurements at this rate through the next two years of the science phase of the mission and beyond. Near the poles, we expect to provide near-GPS-like navigational capability as coverage is denser due to the spacecraft's polar orbit." Neumann will present the map at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco December 17.

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) works by propagating a single laser pulse through a Diffractive Optical Element that splits it into five beams. These beams then strike and are backscattered from the lunar surface. From the return pulse, the LOLA electronics determines the time of flight which, accounting for the speed of light, provides a precise measurement of the range from the spacecraft to the lunar surface. Range measurements, combined with accurate tracking of the spacecraft's location, are used to build a map revealing the contours of the lunar landscape. The five beams create a two-dimensional spot pattern that unambiguously reveals slopes. LOLA will also measure the spreading of the return pulse to get the surface roughness and the change in the transmitted compared to the return energy of the pulse to determine surface reflectance.

The primary objective of LRO is to conduct investigations that prepare for future lunar exploration. Specifically LRO will scout for safe and compelling landing sites, locate potential resources (with special attention to the possibility of water ice) and characterize the effects of prolonged exposure to the lunar radiation environment. In addition to its exploration mission, LRO will also return rich scientific data that will help us to better understand the moon’s topography and composition.

Launched along with LRO was the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), a partner mission that will search for water ice on the moon.

In response to LRO's "Send Your Name to the Moon" initiative, the spacecraft carries a microchip with nearly 1.6 million names submitted by the public. Click here to view a photo of the microchip containing the names as engineers prepare to install it on the spacecraft.

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[More links on the left and right side columns. - LRK -]
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A NASA lunar probe's meticulous observations are allowing scientists to create the most precise and complete map of the moon's surface to date, researchers said.

In its first year or so of operation, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft beamed about 3 billion data points back to Earth, researchers said. And it's not done yet.

"This dataset is being used to make digital elevation and terrain maps that will be a fundamental reference for future scientific and human exploration missions to the moon," Gregory Neumann, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "We expect to continue to make measurements at this rate through the next two years of the science phase of the mission and beyond."

Hope we have similar information updates from other lunar spacecraft.
It would be helpful in determining if there might be resources useful to future explorers.
A good map to what is available and where to find it always helps.
- LRK -

In its first year or so of operation, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft beamed about 3 billion data points back to Earth, researchers said. And it's not done yet.

"This dataset is being used to make digital elevation and terrain maps that will be a fundamental reference for future scientific and human exploration missions to the moon," Gregory Neumann, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "We expect to continue to make measurements at this rate through the next two years of the science phase of the mission and beyond."

Neumann presented the lunar map at the American Geophysical Union meeting on Dec. 17. [Photo of the new map]

Monday, December 20, 2010

Well someone is happy about sending probes to the Moon.
Will be interesting to see what China reports of its findings.
They made a lunar map with Chang'e 1.
A lunar map has been made from LRO's LOLAhttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/lola-topo-map.html
Will we get another lunar map and will anyone use the information to land some rovers?
- LRK -

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BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China celebrated on Monday the success of its second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, highlighting the significance of the project in boosting the country's technological development.
In a celebration rally in Beijing, President Hu Jintao hailed the project as another achievement in China's lunar exploration program and a result of its drive to build an innovation-oriented nation.
The lunar probe project was a strategic decision based on China's goal of building an innovation-driven nation and achieving rapid economic development, said Hu.
Through the success of Chang'e-2, China had not only made breakthroughs in a series of core and key technologies, but also promoted the development of the basic sciences and applied technologies, said Hu.
The project had also brought experience of managing major science and technology projects, and cultivated high-quality science, technological and managerial staff, said Hu.
Hu praised the contributions of all the project staff, their great sense of responsibility, solidarity, earnest efforts, and devotion.

Chang'e-2 arrived at an earth-moon transfer orbit after it separated from the carrier rocket, which has a perigee of 200 kilometers and an apogee of about 380,000 kilometers from the earth, according to the control center.

The control center made the announcement after the satellite successfully entered the orbit and unfolded its solar panels.

At 6:59:57 p.m., the satellite blasted off on a Long March 3C carrier rocket from No. 2 launch tower at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The lunar satellite is expected to take about 112 hours, or almost five days, to arrive at its lunar orbit

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The world will be watching to see what follows.
For what it is worth, a clip from Wikipedia.
- LRK -

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==============================================================http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1606839.php/Chinese-leaders-hail-success-of-moon-mission
Chinese leaders hail success of moon mission
Dec 20, 2010, 10:27 GMT
Beijing.
The lunar programme reflected a 'strategic decision based on China's goal of building an innovation-driven nation and achieving rapid economic development,' Hu said.
Chang'e-2 was launched on October 1 to prepare for the country's first unmanned moon landing scheduled for 2013.
It entered its long-term lunar orbit on November 3 and had started recording images of the moon's Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Hu, Premier Wen Jiabao and the other seven members of the Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee attended Monday's ceremony, the agency said.
The main task of the probe's six-month mission is to test key technologies and collect data for future lunar landings, including high-resolution photos of the moon's surface.
Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe

, was launched in October 2007 and stayed in orbit for 16 months.
The satellites are named after a Chinese moon goddess.
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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Back in October I received an e-mail from Natalie Wolchover who was working on an article for Popular Science magazine about the Pioneer Anomaly. We exchanged a couple of e-mails and now a pleasant surprise, it is on-line at POPSCI. I think you will appreciate what she reports. It is three web pages and has some Pioneer 10 and 11 images and even one of the Pioneer 10/11 Telemetry Display on my Mac Quadra 950 showing the very low signal level.
- LRK -

Enough of my feeling good about being in print. The article is really about what Dr. Slava Turyshev and Viktor Toth have been working on and that is where the story really gets interesting. Enjoy the read.
- LRK -
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What is the mystery force slowing down the Pioneer spacecraft? Do we finally know the answer?

By Natalie Wolchover Posted 12.15.2010 at 11:00 am

Thirty years ago, NASA scientists noticed that two of their spacecraft, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, were veering off course slightly, as if subject to a mysterious, unknown force. In 1998, the wider scientific community got wind of that veering—termed the Pioneer anomaly—and took aim at it with incessant, mind-blowingly detailed scrutiny that has since raised it to the physics equivalent of cult status. Now, though, after spawning close to 1000 academic papers, numerous international conferences, and many entire scientific careers, this beloved cosmic mystery may be on its way out.
Slava Turyshev, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Viktor Toth, a Canada-based software developer, plan to publish the results of their strikingly comprehensive new analysis of the Pioneer anomaly in the next few months. Their work is likely to bring a conclusion to one of the longest and most tumultuous detective stories of modern astrophysics.
sniphttp://www.popsci.com/pioneeranomaly?page=1http://www.popsci.com/pioneeranomaly?page=2
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When you finish with Natalie's article you might be interested in looking at some of the comments.
Some good, some so, so.
An interesting blog about her article is found at DISCOVER Blogs/ Cosmic Variance
- LRK -

Here’s an excellent article in Popular Science about the Pioneer anomaly. (Via Dan Vergano on Twitter.) The Pioneer spacecraft, launched in the early 1970’s, have been moseying through the outer regions of the Solar System for quite some time now. But a careful analysis of tracking data indicated that the acceleration of the two spacecraft didn’t quite match what we’d expect from gravity; there appears to be an anomalous acceleration, nearly constant over time and pointing toward the Sun. Many new-physics explanations have been proposed, but it’s always been a difficult scenario to master; it’s very hard to imagine a new force that would account for the Pioneer data but not also show up in observations of the outer planets. (The Voyager spacecraft aren’t as useful for this purpose, as they are guided by tiny thrusters that overwhelm the signal, while the Pioneers float freely and are pointed using gyroscopes.)

The most likely explanation has always been that we didn’t completely understand the spacecraft, or the tracking system. Indeed, it’s been recognized for a while that a small imbalance in how the spacecraft radiated heat could account for the acceleration — but that imbalance didn’t seem to be supported by what we knew about the vessels. That may be changing, however. The Popular Science article is a little cagey, but it mentions a new and unprecedentedly thorough analysis by Viktor Toth and Slava Turshyev that should be coming out soon. Here is as much as they would let on:
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Even though Slava and Viktor have not published the one coming up on their definitive stand you can get all the background you need by reading their last publication. You can read on-line or a 165 page PDF file where at the end you can look at 428 references or 427 on-line at http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/lrr-2010-4/
- LRK -

It has been a fun ride and I have really enjoyed having played a small part in the quest for an answer to the Pioneer Anomaly.
To watch the data come in from a spacecraft that has traveled for 11 hours through space is something you don't get to do everyday.
- LRK -

30 YEARS FROM LAUNCH AT CAPE CANAVERAL ON MARCH 2, 2002, PIONEER 10 DATA WAS RECEIVED AT MADRID

GOLDSTONE On 1 March 2002, DSS 14 transmitted an uplink, and two no-op commands at 200 kw to the spacecraft.
MADRID
22 hours later, from 79.4 AU, DSS 63 acquired the downlink on time at -183 dbm. After peaking the signal to -178.5 dbm, they locked the telemetry at 16 bps with SNR of -0.5 db.
ARICEBO
SETI Institute also acquired the same signal at Puerto Rico. SETI has been using Pioneer 10 as a reference signal.

Project Phoenix has been observing Pioneer 10 at Arecibo in Puerto Rico through the auspices of the SETI Institute. The signal from Pioneer 10 was also picked up at Arecibo on 2 March 2002.

The last telemetered data from the University of Iowa cosmic ray instrument were as follows: 2 March 2002 (39 minutes of clean data) (r = 79.83 AU) 27 April 2002 (33 minutes of clean data) (r = 80.22 AU)

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We no longer hear from Pioneer 10 and 11. The mission is over and the computer space has been cleared of all hardware.
Mixed emotions when you have to pull out the old cables to make way for an office space. No more raised computer floor. :-(
------------------- Pioneer 10 now silent. Hardware coming out. See Pictures.http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/PioneerPic.html
-------------------

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

and we see recent report from Voyager 1 being reported.
- LRK -------------------------------------------

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-415
NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind DeclineDecember 13, 2010PASADENA, Calif. – The 33-year odyssey of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind.

Now hurtling toward interstellar space some 17.4 billion kilometers (10.8 billion miles) from the sun, Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero. Scientists suspect the solar wind has been turned sideways by the pressure from the interstellar wind in the region between stars.

The event is a major milestone in Voyager 1's passage through the heliosheath, the turbulent outer shell of the sun's sphere of influence, and the spacecraft's upcoming departure from our solar system.

"The solar wind has turned the corner," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "Voyager 1 is getting close to interstellar space." snip------------------------------------------

PASADENA, Calif. -- The 33-year odyssey of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind.

Now hurtling toward interstellar space some 10.8 billion miles from the sun, Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero. Scientists suspect the solar wind has been turned sideways by the pressure from the interstellar wind in the region between stars.

The event is a major milestone in Voyager 1's passage through the heliosheath, the turbulent outer shell of the sun's sphere of influence, and the spacecraft's upcoming departure from our solar system.

The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. In the 33rd year after their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto. Voyager 1 and 2 are now in the "Heliosheath" - the outermost layer of the heliosphere where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas. Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network (DSN).

The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there -- such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings -- the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond.

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Budget cuts can put these long lasting missions in jeopardy so we are lucky to still be hearing from the Voyagers.You may remember back in 2005 when we wanted to go the Moon, the Voyager mission came under the threat of being terminated because there wasn't enough money to do everything.- LRK -

In a cost-cutting move prompted by President Bush's moon-Mars initiative, NASA could summarily put an end to Voyager, the legendary 28-year mission that has sent a spacecraft farther from Earth than any object ever made by humans. The probable October shutdown of a program that currently costs $4.2 million a year has caused consternation among scientists who have shepherded the twin Voyager probes on flybys of four planets and an epic journey to the frontier of interstellar space.

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Political history tends to repeat itself, yes. Don't have the money to go to the Moon so off with its head.So will there ever be a business plan that will make it profitable to go to space further than LEO?- LRK -